Origin of psychology Flashcards
What does psychology mean?
The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those functions affecting behaviour in a given context.
What does science mean?
A means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation. The aim is to discover general law.
What dies introspection mean?
The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations.
-Introspection means “looking into” and refers to the process of observing and examining your own conscious thoughts or emotions
Who was the first lab dedicated to?
The first ever lab dedicated to psychological enquiry was opened by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig Germany in 1879. The objective Wundt set himself was to document and describe the nature of human consciousness. This pioneering method came to be known as introspection, and involved Wundt and his co workers recording their own conscious thoughts with the aim of breaking these down into their constituent parts. Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is caked structuralism.
How is controlled methods related to the origin of psychology?
This early attempt to investigate the mind might be regarded by many as naïve but some of the methods and techniques Wundt and his co workers used would nevertheless be recognised as scientific today. All introspections were recorded under strictly controlled conditions using the same stimulus every time (such as a ticking metronome). The same standardised instruction were issued to all participants and this allowed procedures to be repeated (replicated) every single time. Thus Wundt’s work was significant in that it marked the separation of the modern scientific psychology from its broader philosophical roots.
How did Watson and the early behaviourists help psychology emerge as a separate science?
By the beginning of the 20th century, the scientific status and value of introspection was being questioned by many most notably the behaviours John. B Watson(1913). Watsons main problem with introspection was that it produced data that was subjective, in that it varied greatly from person to person, so it became very difficult to establish general principles. Watson was also highly critical of introspections focus on private mental processes and proposed that a truly scientific psychology should restrict itself only to studying phenomena that could be observed and measured. Thus, the behaviourist approach was born and with it the emergence of psychology as a science.
How is the scientific approach help psychology emerge as a science?
Watson (1913) and later Skinner (1953), brought the language rigour and methods of the natural sciences into psychology. The behaviourist focus on the scientific processes involved in learning alongside the use if carefully controlled lab experiments would go on to dominate the discipline for the next five decades.
The legacy of behaviourism can still be observed today. Many modern psychologists continue to rely on the experimental method as part of their research and practices. However the scope of their research has broadened considerably since the behaviourists first studied learning in the lab. Following the cognitive revolution of the 1960’s the study of mental processes is now seen as a legitimate and highly scientific area within psychology. Although mental processes remain private cognitive psychologists are able to make inferences about how these work on the basis of lab test. The biological approach also makes use of experimental data. Researchers within this area have advantages of recent advances in technology to investigate physiological processes as they happen including live activity in the brain using sophisticated scanning techniques such as fMRI and EED. Suffice to say that even though the scientific method is still a major corerstone sychology it has come along way since it early beginings.
How did Rene Descartes contribute to psychology’s early philosophical roots?
Descartes a French philosopher suggested that the mind and body are independent from each other- a philosophical stance that came to be known as Cartesian dualism. Although this view has since been challenged it suggested that the mind could be an object of study in its own right. Descartes demonstrated his own existence with the famous quote ‘I think therefore I am’.
How did John Locke contribute to psychology’s early philosophical roots?
Locke proposed empiricism, the idea that all experience can be obtained through the senses and that human beings inherit neither knowledge nor instincts. This view would later form the basis of the behaviourist approach that the world can be understood by investigating external events that are observed and measured.
How did Charles Darwin contribute to psychology’s early philosophical roots?
Central to Darwin’s evolutionary theory is the notion that all human and animal behaviour has changed over successive generations, so that the individuals with stronger, more adaptive genes survive and reproduce, and the individuals with weaker genes are ‘weeded out’ (survival of the fittest)
-The assumption that many human behaviours such as social behaviour have evolved due to their adaptive value is deeply rooted in many areas of psychology especially the biological approach
How was psychology in 17th- 19th century ?
Psychology is a branch of the broader discipline of philosophy. If psychology has a definition during this time it is best understood as experimental philosophy.
What happened in 1879?
Wilhelm Wundt opens the first experimental psychology lab in Germany, and psychology emerges as a distinct discipline in its own right.
What happened in 1900’s?
Sigmund Freud publishes The interception of the dreams, and the psychodynamic approach is established. Freud emphasised the influence of the unconscious mind on behaviour , alongside development of his person centred therapy- psychoanalysis . He argued that physical problems could be explained in terms of conflicts within the mind
What happened in 1913?
John B. Watson writes psychology as the behaviourist views it and BF Skinner establishes the behaviourists approach. The psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches dominate psychology for the next fifty years.
What happened in 1950?
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow develop the humanistic approach-the so called ‘third force’ in psychology, rejecting the views favoured by behaviourism and the psychodynamic approach that human behaviour was not determined by the individual. Humanistic psychologists emphasise the importance of self determination and free will
